A fire, under mysterious circumstances, has entirely consumed the Ebonyi State Magistrate’s Court 1 at the Ebonyi State Judicial Headquarters, located opposite the Old Government House in Abakaliki.
The chief registrar of the State High Court Abakaliki, Nnenna Onuoha shared with Leadership that the rough estimate of the property damage stands around N40 million.
Onuoha disclosed that a majority of the court’s exhibits were lost to the fire, which occurred over the weekend. “On the early hours of June 3rd, we got calls from our people living at the magistrate quarters that our court has been gutted by fire,” she said.
The court officials rushed to the scene, finding the building ablaze. Witnesses informed them that the fire originated from a transformer. “Rescuers called Ebonyi State Fire Service and they came and helped us to quench the fire,” Onuoha stated.
An anonymous magistrate recounted being roused from sleep by the fire, which also alarmed other State High Court staff living nearby.
Efforts to quench the fire using their fire extinguishers proved futile as the fire exploded, intensifying further.
Eventually, the State Fire Service intervened, successfully extinguishing the flames.